Thursday, September 12, 2013

Italy 2013 - Day 6 (Rome/Sorrento)

I figured this would be a boring day since we were just travelling from Rome to Sorrento. It is about 2 hours to get from one to the other if you catch the right train. If not, it may take you longer since you need to switch at Naples

So we bid farewell to Pablo at Arches Inn and we headed to Vatican City so that we could send some final postcards. Before Vatican City we stopped at a small pizza shop that was recommended by Anthony Bourdin. The place is so small, it doesn't have room instead for seating, there is a bench outside and a small counter. Pizza in this country is typically sold by weight unless you order a whole pizza and it was no different here. The pizza was outstanding. We ordered one with potatoes and another with eggplant. I really liked the potato one whereas the eggplant one was good too but not my favourite of the two.

Afterwards we would take the train to Naples and switch and head to Sorrento. We were told that Naples it a dangerous area, but based on our train ride, it wasn't too bad. I wasn't concerned, but the train from Naples to Sorrento was an older one. You could see the number of tourists going to the same area and most likely for the same reasons.

We are staying at Casa Rachele and the host has been very good. She provided us with information on all the tourist attractions, how to get to each, with detailed maps for all locations as well as what tickets to buy and how much they would cost. She also provided us with business cards for restaurants to go to and if we provided them to the waiter, we would get some discount or free items with the meal.

Since we would be doing day trips from here, we decided to go to the local market to buy some items to make sandwiches and snack for the trips planned. We will be going to Amalfi coast, Pompei and Capri. With the ingredients bought, we returned to Casa Rachele to drop things off before heading to dinner.

I looked at TripAdvisor before I left to see what was recommended for restaurants to eat at and all the ones suggested were highly recommended on TA. Mind you, there are only 29 local restaurants here. So, we head towards Re Pizza.

As we sat down, we were a bit confused since we saw what looked like a buffet style platter full of pizzas with drinks and cups on the side. Turns out that someone was having a birthday party there. The lady who was celebrating her birthday was turning 60 today. Which is also the day Saint Marie is born (or something?) since her husband was talking to us in English. He was talking about how he used to travel the world for work and has been to every continent but Australia. So, being the only people not invited to the party, we felt a little odd but we clapped and cheered along as others were singing what we assumed was happy birthday. They were gracious enough to give us some cake and champagne as well. The cake was awesome, the champagne was good. The pizza here was probably the best we have had so far. Highly recommended.

We took a stroll after dinner and went back to Casa Rachele to call it a night and figure out where to go tomorrow. While waiting for the shower, there was a fireworks show just outside the hotel. A lovely finish to the night.